ABSTRACT
The previous chapter highlighted the large body of information, accumulated over the past two decades, that elucidates the ways in which organisms sense and respond to various environmental pollutants and stressors. Perhaps the most knowledge concerns the structure of an impressive number of stress genes and the mechanisms whereby these genes can be activated, as well as the properties of their products in relation to cell survival. Not surprisingly, potential biotechnological applications in agriculture, brewing, baking, medicine, pharmacology, and toxicology are beginning to emerge. For example, with the advent of genetic engineering, the possibility of introducing specific stress genes directly into stress-sensitive organisms offers a rapid and novel route to the development of stress-tolerant crops. Another potential application is the use of stress gene activation and stress proteins as biomarkers for estimating exposure, or damage, from environmental exposure to toxic chemicals and other stressors. Future biotechnological applications can also be envisaged for a range of proteins derived from extremophiles, a class of microorganisms that inhabit a range of adverse environments, for example high temperatures or extremes of pH. Stress-tolerant proteins from these organisms could be of considerable value as catalysts for environmentally clean industrial processes. Although yet to be fully explored, knowledge of toxic metal metabolizing genes and genes encoding
components of xenobiotic degradation pathways offers potential as a future route to environmental bioremediation.
